This is always a good feeling…

October 21, 2012, 9:32 PM

It’s always a good feeling to unload a bunch of clothes that I can’t wear anymore on account of my sizing down out of them. So on Saturday, I donated an armful of clothes to Goodwill, and I think I’ve now just about kissed the era of big clothing goodbye. Take a look at this:

I count 14 shirts there. All of these are plain, and all of them are unwearable on account of their being 3XL/4XL, and my body now being just XL. The only big clothes that I still have are ones that I’m keeping around as outerwear and stuff that has sentimental value, plus two pairs of size 48 jeans and one green long-sleeved t-shirt that I meant to take but forgot to grab before I went out. Those last three items will leave one of these days, though.

This is definitely a good thing. I didn’t get rid of these clothes during the first purge back in April because I was either keeping them around as “second tier” (i.e. weekend) clothes, or because they were still relatively new. Yes, the more recent stuff was retained for a while specifically because it was newer and I didn’t want to part with it just yet on account of its newness. But then recently, when I was standing in the closet deciding what to wear and lamenting my lack of long-sleeved casual shirts, I looked at those same clothes, and I wrote them off pretty much summarily. Thus it was time for them to go, since I wrote them off as unwearable. Thus they were now just taking up space.

And then another good feeling came when I went to Aardvark Swim after going to Goodwill. Aardvark is where I buy swim stuff, like my deep water running equipment, some of my swimsuits, and things like earplugs and goggle cleaner. Those Dolfin Winners suits that I loved the colors on had deteriorated a bit faster than I would have liked (how disappointing!), and so it was time to replace them. I had never been able to fit either the longer-lasting polyester suits (like Speedo Endurance), or anything from Tyr. For some reason, the polyester suits generally run smaller than the spandex suits (or have less stretch factor, which was what I relied on to squeeze myself into a jammer for a while). Then Tyr must just run smaller than Speedo or Dolfin, because I had never been able to get into any kind of Tyr suit whenever I tried them on, even when I could fit the same size in the other brands. This time, I got two polyester suits – both from Tyr. And both of them off the bargain rack, no less. Yes, I fit into both things I could never fit before, and got a deal on them to boot. Check it out:

Score. And I take one of those to the pool tomorrow.

So I’m feeling really good after making a wardrobe realignment. Next thing I’m waiting for is a drop in pants size again, but as of a couple of weeks ago, I’m not there just yet. It will come soon enough, I’m sure.